By ThrustSSC’s successful 330mph run on Saturday 16th November, the ThrustSSC team had been working long hours for 17 days without a break. Mistakes were being made, and accidents starting to happen - it was time for a break.

The design team needed time to study and analyse the data from the last two runs in order to plan the future ‘run profiles’, and the results of their efforts could well require work on the car, so the decision was made to give the engineering team Sunday off, with the design team taking a rest on Monday while any changes required to ThrustSSC were made.

(Checking in to one of the Petra hotels. Photo: Jeremy Davey)

On Saturday night the Discoverys left Al Jafr air-base with separate groups bound for Amman and Petra. Visiting the latter has been a particular goal of many members of the team - with its spectacular ruins and buildings cut out of solid rock by the Nabataean people over 2000 years ago. Little is known of the Nabataeans, save that they were a nomadic people who ruled the Transjordan area before the Romans: Petra was their capital from which they controlled the profitable trade in spices that passed through the area, although many people know it as the location used for filming some of the most spectacular sequences in ‘Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade’.

Overnight was spent in the modern town of Petra, much higher up the valley than the old Nabataean city. Filling an entire end of the bar in one of the many local hotels, the ThrustSSC team members met up with some of the Mach 1 Club who were staying nearby and the film crews on location for filming ThrustSSC’s trials.

(One of the horse-drawn buggies in the Siq gorge. Photo: Paul Remfry)

Shunning the masses of waiting donkeys, horses, camels and ‘buggies’ all vying for the chance to take people down the long track to the ruins, the team opted for Shanks’ pony and the opportunity to study the incredible rock formations in the Siq gorge instead. With the watercourse that once ran down it diverted through a tunnel, the soft sandstone is no longer carved into intricate curves by its passage, but the windblown sand still erodes the rock in the deep split in the rock.

(ThrustSSC Team members passing beneath an overhanging bush. Photo: Paul Remfry)

At intervals along the track hardy bushes attempt to eke out an existence, growing in tight fissures and surviving on the limited rainfall that settles in them. Many are surprisingly successful, while others have succumbed to the harsh conditions and withered.

(The Al-Kazneh Farun. Photo: Jeremy Davey)

Finally, the Siq brought the visitors to what is probably the most famous view of Petra - the magnificent Treasure of the Pharaoh - or Al-Kazneh Farun - through the entrance to the gorge. Believed to have been the tomb of King Harith IV (84-85 B.C.), the tomb is beautifully preserved in its well-protected location. The interior is surprisingly small - one large room flanked by three smaller ante-rooms. Something of a contrast to how the building was portrayed in the film…

(Video expert John Price haggling over some jewellery. Photo: A. Sumpy)

The square outside is a small marketplace, with some of the few remaining inhabitants of the city manning their stalls of traditional headdresses, jewellery and bottles of coloured sand in intricate patterns. Others carry trays of their wares, or offer to add your name to the sand pattern in a bottle for a couple of Dinars - around two pounds sterling.

(The Ampitheatre. Photo: Jeremy Davey)

Progressing through the ruins, the team found the mausoleum, houses, more tombs and the spectacular ampitheatre. Cut out of solid rock, and enlarged by the Romans, it afforded seating for some 8,000 people on 33 levels of benches. Many of the adjacent houses and tombs were destroyed in the quest for a larger theatre, and the holes remaining from them in the rock above give the appearance of Royal Boxes. It was at this point that the team discovered a hitherto unseen trait in Robbie Kraike - the urge to climb anything and everything. Before long he was high above them, continuing the conversation with the aid of the site’s exceptional acoustics.

(The Urn Tomb and arches from the Collonaded Street. Photo: Jeremy Davey)

Around the corner from the theatre, carved into the Jabal-Khubtha mountain to the east of the city are the Royal Tombs, including the spectacular Urn Tomb with its courtyard extended on arches constructed, rather than carved, from the rock.

After the Royal Tombs - although it is by no means certain that they were indeed all tombs rather than very spectacular dwellings - many of the ruins were in fact constructed by the Romans rather than hewn by the Nabataeans. Some of the columns still stand in the partly-restored Collonaded Street, as do some of the walls of the Qsar al-Bint or Great Temple of Dushara.

By the time the museum and restaurant opposite the Temple had been reached it was time for lunch before attempting the long climb to the Monastery high in the hills above the city. The track is arduous and steep in places, although well made. Donkeys were available to carry the less agile - or less willing - to the famous location, but again these were passed by in preference to travel on foot (although keen shopper and photographer Jeremy Davey was beginning to take on the appearance of a pack-horse).

(Robbie 'Bonnington' Kraike. Photo: A. Sumpy)

The views on the climb are superb, with the rock carved by nature into yet more intricate and colourful shapes as the tight gorges open out to reveal stunning panoramas of the valleys. Much posing with the views for family albums ensued…

(The Al Deir. Photo: Jeremy Davey)

A hard slog to the top it may have been - although the cloudy day meant that at least the temperatures were tolerable - but it was worth every bead of sweat as the track eventually emerged next to the magnificently carved Al Deir. The doorway alone is 8 metres high - note the two people standing in it to appreciate the sheer size of the carving. A place of veneration and pilgrimage on Nabataean times, it was later used by the Christians. It wasn’t long after arrival before Robbie was again scrambling high - this time onto the roof of the Monastery - he can just be made out in the photo.

(Camels in Petra. Photo: Jeremy Davey)

A short shower had everyone sheltering in a nearby man-made cave doubling as a shop and café, before the considerably easier walk back to the city. Yet more camels were passed over before the now-tired visitors began the long slog back up the Siq gorge to their waiting Discovery. As always the uniform Castrol jackets attracted comment and interest - the more so when the unusual reason for being in Jordan was revealed. Everyone, from locals in the shops by the Visitors’ Centre to visiting New Zealanders expressed their best wishes for the team’s success.

(The souvenir shops in new Petra. Photo: A. Sumpy)

Speaking of shops, inevitably even more time was spent in them on return to the visitor's centre. Everywhere the local headdresses were on sale in a variety of patterns, as well as hand-embroidered waistcoats, jewellery, postcards, books, videos, cushions and bottles of sand. There will be some unusual Christmas presents this year!

(One walnut, one fruit salad, and five Swiss Chocolate Doodles please… Photo: Ian Dickinson)

Petra is about an hour and a half’s drive from Al Jafr, and by the time the new town had been reached there was only one thing left to do - an ice-cream (and a few rested eyelids) in one of the local hotels - before continuing on to base physically weary, but mentally refreshed for the work ahead.

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